16 Days of Activism 2017: Day of Silence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

We recognize International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the beginning of #16Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence with #DayOfSilence. Join us in sharing the weight of women and girls’ untold stories, recognizing the difficulty of reporting or talking about ongoing or past experiences of violence.
In support of women and girls who feel alone with their stories, we will keep silence on Saturday from midnight to 4pm. Please join us at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to share the final hour of silence, from 3 to 4pm, and break the silence with drumming and affirmations in a circle of women, girls, and allies. Once we break the silence, we will make our voices heard in a series of actions during the 16-day period and beyond. Like Equality Bahamas on Facebook for frequent updates and the release of the #16Days toolkit.

Women’s Wednesdays: Women’s Political Participation

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.

#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.

This conversation centers around women’s political participation, particularly in the wake of bids for leadership by former FNM MP and Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner and current PLP MP Glenys Hanna-Martin and the responses to their audacity. We will look at where we’ve come from, where we are now, and where we need to go. Beyond a general review, we will begin to create a strategy for Bahamian women interested in increasing and improving our political participation and its impact. It is the beginning of a process.
Questions framing our conversation:
– What does political participation mean? What does it look like?
– How, historically, have women participated in political processes, and what can we learn from them?
– What does current representation of women in Parliament and the Senate say about political parties and their values? How can we influence them over the next four years?
– How do Bahamian women in politics relate to, interact with, and share challenges and solutions with the constituency of women in the country?
– What temporary special measures should we consider, particularly for the recruitment, election, and retention of women who will champion women’s rights and fight for gender equality?
– What do we — as individuals and a constituency — need to do to ensure better participation and representation of women in 2022?Watch the replay of the event on November 15, 2017 below.

Women’s Wednesdays – Women’s Political Participation from NAGBahamas on Vimeo.

Women’s Wednesdays: Bahamian Muslimah Identities

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
This conversation centers around gender, culture, and the construction of Bahamian Muslimah identities. There are approximately 350 persons who identify as Muslim in the Bahamas (Department of Statistics, Bahamas 2010; Masjid records). This minority religion includes an increasing population of young Bahamian women converts. What does it mean to be a Muslim Bahamian / Bahamian Muslim? The conversation will be accompanied by a projection of photographs documenting the Bahamian Muslim community then and now.
Questions framing our conversation:
– What does it mean to be a Muslim Bahamian woman?
– How do the Bahamian and Muslim identities intersect, complement one another, or compromise one another?
– How do Bahamian Muslim women relate to, interact with, and share challenges and solutions with other minority groups in The Bahamas?
– What is ‘Islamic’ feminism? And how does it differ from mainstream feminism?

Women’s Wednesdays: Women & Work – A Look at Unpaid Labour

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
Women & Work features a presentation by Gender Specialist Audrey Roberts on the economic cost of unpaid labour. Following the presentation, she will be joined in conversation by Felicity Humblestone who is an only child and has responsibility for caring for her mother, Juliette.

We invite everyone in the room to participate as we explore the following:

-What is “woman’s work”?
-What is emotional labour, and why does it fall to women to do it?
-What is the role of the caregiver?
-What are the gaps between domestic workers’ rights and their realities?
-What are existing formal and informal support systems for women undertaking undervalued/unpaid work?
-How can we imagine a time and place where women’s work is compensated?

Movies in the Square: Womanish Ways

Womanish Ways, Freedom, Human Rights and Democracy: The Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas 1948-1962 is a documentary film directed by Marion Bethel. In partnership with Movies in the Square by Pupstar Enterainment, it will be screened in Pompey Square on Saturday, August 12 at 7:30pm.
Five Bahamian women — Mary Ingraham, Georgiana Symonette, Mabel Walker, Eugenia Lockhart, and Dr. Doris Johnson — led the Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas. The journey to female enfranchisement spanned more than a decade, and took place alongside the dramatic backdrop of the Burma Road Riots in 1942, the General Strike in 1958, the Labour Movement of the 1950s, and the quest for Majority Rule. Bahamian women voted for the first time on November 26, 1962. This film narrates the story of the Women’s Suffrage Movement with special attention to its five leaders and the voices of the women who stood on their shoulders.
Concessions by POW; menu coming soon. Lemonade by Seasonal Sunshine Bahamas will also be on sale with proceeds going to Equality Bahamas.
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#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.

Women’s Wednesdays: Women & Sex

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Women & Sex discussion centers women’s health, focusing on care for the body, negotiating use of contraception, the definition and practice of consent, and ways to talk to young people about sex.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-How do we take care of our bodies?
-What steps do we need to take before engaging in sexual activity with a new partner?
-How can we talk to our partners about contraception?
-What is consent, and how can we practice it in our everyday lives?
-How can we talk to young people about sex?
-Why does sex seem to be a forbidden topic for women?
-How can we build a sex-positive culture?

Women’s Wednesdays: Sexuality and Online Harassment

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Sexuality and Online Harassment panel centers the woman’s body and explores ideas of access, presentation, expectations, and vulnerability.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-What is sexuality?
-Who owns and controls the woman’s body?
-How does the state support/impede bodily autonomy?
-What have we learned, and what do we need to unlearn, about our bodies and sexuality?
-What is harassment? Who is at risk of harassment?
-What is our responsibility in protecting ourselves and each other from sexual violence?
Our Sexuality and Online Harassment panelists are:
Jodi Minnis, Multidisciplinary Artist
Princess Pratt, Storyteller
Erin Greene, LGBT+ Advocate
Tamika Galanis, Artist-Scholar

Women’s Wednesdays: Panel Discussion on Citizenship

Panel Discussion: Citizenship

What is citizenship?
What are the rights and responsibilities of citizenship?
What does active citizenship look like?
How do we move forward following the gender equality referendum of 2016?

Panelists:
Ava Turnquest
Shawn-Gabrielle Gomez
Knijah Knowles
Niambi Hall-Campbell

#WomensWednesdays242 — a partnership between Equality Bahamas and National Art Gallery of The Bahamas — highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays242 intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.

Women’s Wednesdays: Gender Equality Panel

#WomenWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomenWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Gender Equality panel will kickstart our event series, and lay the foundation for later discussions.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-What is gender equality?
-What does gender equality look like?
-What is the importance of constitutional equality?
-How do religious institutions/leaders/views (not) support gender equality?
-What are current barriers to gender equality? How can we address them?
Our Gender Equality panelists are:
Natalie Willis, Cultural Practitioner
Alexus D’Marco, Human Rights Defender
Carol Misiewicz, Supreme Court Registrar

Free Meditation Session

Join us at NAGB for a free meditation session designed for artists of all disciplines, and open to the public. Please bring a mat, cushion, towel, or whatever you would like to sit on during the 90 minute session.
Peace Revolution is a project by World Peace Initiative – an international organization working to promote a culture of peace through the practice of meditation. Through its PIPO (peace in, peace out) initiative, volunteers travel the world to offer free meditation sessions to schools, organizations, yoga/meditation centers, state organizations, and many others. Peace Revolution strongly believes that promotion of a culture of peace begins with self development and the meditation practice improves quality of life, reduces stress, increasing concentration, and increases feelings of well-being and happiness.
Peace Revolution is bringing a volunteer group to Nassau, offering its “Basic Principles of Meditation” workshop using the Dhammakaya technique. Originally from Thailand, this technique has been adapted into a form of practice for everyone, regardless of religion, nationality, and beliefs. The workshop includes an introduction to meditation, basic techniques, meditation practice, a question and answer session, and a talk on the project and the benefits of meditation.
Peace Revolution first visited The Bahamas in 2015 when two sessions were held in Nassau – one public and one private – with facilitation by Ilse, a volunteer from Mexico. This year, two public sessions will be held at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and Cosmosis Yoga Suite (Tuesday, May 3 at 1pm)